Bank Valuations

Hoonercat

I was in the middle of taking out a fixed rate mortgage with Northern Rock who sent out a valuer yesterday. I had valued my 3 bed semi at £185k (Zoopla has it down at £191k). 2 years ago the Abbey National valued it at £187k when I took out my present mortgage with them.

Northern Rock's valuer has come back with a figure of £145k:shocked:. This means I don't qualify for the lower rate and now must look at higher rate mortgages. To say I'm shocked at the valuation is an understatement, according to my Financial Advisor they are all under valuing, but by this much??
I had a leak under the living room floorboards last week which hasn't helped matters as the laminate flooring has been pulled up, but the valuer has said the house will be worth £150k 'once the work is carried out'. So laying laminate flooring puts £5k on the value then?
According to the Financial Advisor valuer are knocking 16% off valuations as the banks are jittery about future house prices.

Meeper

If you do not like the valuation that you have been given there is an appeals process. If you can obtain comparative figures for similar properties within a mile or so's radius of yours which have sold in the last 6-9 months, this can be put to the surveyor who will either accept or decide not to and stick with his original valuation.

On the plus side, you should have lost nothing so far as the NR deal no doubt had a free valuation.

brit1234

Hoonercat wrote: »

(Zoopla has it down at £191k)

Zoopla is not an accurate value assessor at all. Don't get suckered in by the sites valuation.

Prices are falling, if you have enough equity it might be worth looking at another lender before rates go up.

Hoonercat

Hi Meeper, thanks for the reply.
I've just done a search on Zoopla and found 3 houses that sold for between £162 - £165k between March and Sept last year. They are similar to my property with the exception of having a smaller living area and smaller gardens (front & back).
Back in 2001 (when I bought my house) these houses were valued at £10 - £15k less than mine. Zoopla estimates their current value at around £162k.
I've also just come across two 2 bed houses (mine is 3 bed) which sold last summer for £157 & £170k.:mad:

Meeper

Excellent.

Then get your adviser to actually earn his money and make the case to the lender. You have evidence that the valuation should be higher, so send this evidence to the lender who will then forward to the valuer for review.

I'm afraid your adviser could be doing much more to help you in this scenario other than saying "Ah well, that's just how it is".

Hoonercat

brit1234 wrote: »

Zoopla is not an accurate value assessor at all. Don't get suckered in by the sites valuation.

Prices are falling, if you have enough equity it might be worth looking at another lender before rates go up.

I realize that it isn't completely accurate, though when I re mortgaged 2 years ago it's estimate was actually £5k less than the Nationwide valued it so I wouldn't have thought it's current estimate would be that far out.
Not by £45k anyway.

Hoonercat

Meeper wrote: »

Excellent.

Then get your adviser to actually earn his money and make the case to the lender. You have evidence that the valuation should be higher, so send this evidence to the lender who will then forward to the valuer for review.

I'm afraid your adviser could be doing much more to help you in this scenario other than saying "Ah well, that's just how it is".

Already done but thanks anyway.:T He spoke to the bank who said they had the same thing happen only yesterday where a house was hugely undervalued. Just got to wait for them to get back to me now, I'll post an update just in case anyone else finds themselves in the same situation.

eilidh_s

I've just had the same thing happen to me. I have built a house, just got the completion certificate and am trying to remortgage. I had the house surveyed at every stage before I could get the next installment of my self build mortgage so since I was paying for it myself I thought I would go the extra mile last time and get the house valued with the survey so two months ago my house was valued at £210000. When I went to remortgage I thought I would go for about £150000 so that I can pay of my credit cards and give a bit of cash to my brother who did a lot of the building work for me. I got a good deal with the Halifax and everything was going according to plan until they requested an external survey from the more "suspect" local surveyors (lets just say that given the horror stories I had heard about them, I specifically said to my broker that if I had a choice then I didn't want to use them) and they apparently drove past my house and valued it at £160000. I can't even prove that they actually saw the house and I think that an external survey is extremely unfair so I kicked up a fuss with my broker and he has requested a proper valuation. I'm now waiting to see what Halifax have to say about the whole thing.

Thrugelmir

Hoonercat wrote: »

According to the Financial Advisor valuer are knocking 16% off valuations as the banks are jittery about future house prices.

There's the answer to your question.

Northern Rock being tax payer owned will undoubtably be the most cautious. The NR's prefered option would be for you to remortgage elsewhere.

Hoonercat

Thrugelmir wrote: »

There's the answer to your question.

Northern Rock being tax payer owned will undoubtably be the most cautious. The NR's prefered option would be for you to remortgage elsewhere.

Maybe a fixed 2 year at 2.99% isn't such a good idea then, on their part.

whatyadoinsucka

a 2 year fix is pointless at the moment. unless your on a rubbish SRV of 5% above base.